bemani games have a megaton of artists making music for them now and with a lot of them being relative newcomers it's time to find out who the peoples' favorites are (all six people who still visit this board that is)

here's my top 5. I dunno how I'd order them since I like them all for different reasons, so I did a review instead:

wac+ god-tier composition and arrangement, has the magical wac touch+ Seriously his only bad songs are the ones he made with other people+ He's got that whole reclusive enlightened musical savant aura going on- Keeps collaborating with LED for some godforsaken reason- Not actually a Leo, kinda fake dude :/- Starting to feel like he lost interest but maybe he's just busy with the new piano game

DJ TOTTO+ Can make any genre good+ Genetic experiment created in a lab using the DNA of ZUN and every Kirby composer+ Caused Yoshitaka to realize he had no reason to write music anymore- Actually, he can't make denpa good- All his songs sound the same

Nekomata Master+ Can compose several excellent songs in a short timespan+ All the samples and instruments he uses are just really satisfying to my ears+ He almost single-handedly salvaged Godspeed- A lot of his best songs aren't in IIDX- probably got a concussion filming the video for INSOMNIA and now he doesn't remember Tribe exists- DARK LEGACY-Long version-

USAO+ Made Dynamite+ Gives less of a fuck than everybody else except Hommarju+ Reposts crossdressing Shimakaze smut on twitter, which is hilarious- Some of his songs are just the same kick on loop for 5 consecutive minutes- He reposts crossdressing Shimakaze smut on twitter

kors k+ Long-runner with consistent high quality output+ Diverse; can take a swing at most EDM genres with positive results+ Was around 17 when he submitted Clione and look at him now. He is a modern success story- Songs take time to warm up to even though they're usually good- Don't let him include vocals- No more teranoid?

Cametek is also really good. I used to like Remo-con a lot but he's been boring lately. Noriken owns but most of his BEMANI songs are a little boring. lapix will probably be in my top 5 if he becomes a full-on regular. lots of other artists like Tomosuke are great but just haven't been doing much lately :(

If we're talking favorite artists from current bemani then it's probably going to be almost all newcomers or something which is weird. Pretty much all of my old favorites are either gone, not doing anything all that special, or just making junk. (What an awful extend of The Shadow)

I could give reasons but I don't really feel like it atm. This is just kind of a general top-5 too. There's a lot of other bemani people who have great songs but just not enough to be a general favorite over some of the others. If I were to extend the list an additional 5 I'd probably add Asaki, TaQ/Q-Mex, Mass Mad/Onoken (Pop'n), Akira Yamaoka, and Prastik dancefloor/m@sumi I suppose. Slake is pretty cool too I want to fit him in there somewhere. Maybe replace prastik? It depends upon the game a lot for me as well. Pop'n gave me a better appreciation for Des-row/murmur and seiya murai, for example. I'm also sure I've forgotten a bunch of artists somehow. This will probably change further the more I play this silly line of rhythm games.

I'll come back and visit this thread in a month or two maybe, see what I think then. Don't think my top 5 will change though.

man I thought the shadow extended was pretty good, it's just not really the shadow. kors k mixes it up with his long versions sometimes, which can be good or bad (D...).

Yeah, the fact that it wasn't really the shadow is the main reason I didn't like it actually. More specifically, it just came across to me like he was shoehorning an old song into his current genre kick. D is a weird extend. I still don't understand why he thought it could use vocals.

kors k's new EP with Maya has a very teranoid sounding song in it, so there's that I guess?

I really don't know enough about new IIDX artists outside of Dirty Androids to really be able to say if any are my favorite to be honest. I'll have to give a listen to some Totto music though if Prims mentions Kirby composers though. They're awesome.

Follow Slowly guarantees that Nekomata Master is at the top, followed by kors k, Dirty Androids, Mr.T, and wac.

This doesn't include Solid State Squad right? Because the long version from Denjin K is still one of my favorite Bemani-related songs.

If you're still talking about newer songs, then yeah I have no idea.

Either way, I sort of assume all of these guys have run out of ideas by now, if they're any of the "old" Bemani crew. Taka ran out of ideas years ago (I think the last song I remember liking by him was Freeway Shuffle), Ryu only ever had that handful of styles, kors k went down a dark path and never turned back, etc. Also I have no idea if any of them are even around anymore!

he can still make good songs but he's fallen off hard and his collabs are generally not very good (besides Hell or Hell, his boss song with technorch in copula, that one kicks ass)

wac's collabs with LED play to neither of their strengths, it's just weird

i like Paradise Lost a bunch....really wish LED had done the long version, because the one ryu made is...what you'd expect it to be, pretty much

and the baseball prim song is the best prim song I think? the fact that the chart is 9/10 helps a lot, but if you don't think it's better than diavolo/thor's hammer/the obvious pendual takoyaki memorial shoveltune garbage then well that's your problem (i like diavolo and thor's hammer enough but baseball prim is waaaaay better)

The BGMs are one of the things I miss most about playing the CS versions. The unlock systems too. Really wish I didn't need a giant brick of a TV in order to play them properly.

I'd honestly shell out a bunch for another proper CS release. Even more if there were a limited edition or something fancy.

There's some really good BGMs which makes it hard for me to pick one. GOLD especially - Sota, Ryu, Nekomata Master, and kors k all really did a great job on theirs. tkd's is by far the worst in any CS game, sorry Takada. In Distorted, I use kors k's BGM. In Troopers, I alternate between the default BGM and Taka's. In Empress, it's either Happy Sky or Random.

I have three CRTs in use in my place so I guess I have no issues with them taking up tons of space!

djt technorch bgm 4 life (kors k and LED's were also on point god djt cs was such a great game, if only mei, nageki and bad maniacs were on it. and voltage, and summer vacation, and route80s, and virtual mind, and still in my hea-*blam*)